The present invention relates to cups and other liquid containers, and in particular, to a liquid-absorbent base for a cup or container for use in absorbing liquid condensate and cleaning up spillage.
xe2x80x9cIn Canadian Patent Application No. 2,309,621, filed Jun. 29, 2000, (hereinafter, xe2x80x9cthe ""621 Applicationxe2x80x9d), and corresponding U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/896,180, filed concurrently herewith on Jun. 28, 2001, abandoned the contents of which are each hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes, a cup-holder invention is described which is useful to reduce paper waste associated with using napkins to clean-up spillage from disposable cups used in the Food and Beverage Industry. Referring to the ""621 Application, a cup and liquid-absorbent cup-holder is provided in combination. The cup-holder may be removed from the cup and used as a liquid-absorbent substrate for cleaning up spillage and liquid condensate.xe2x80x9d
It is desirable to provide a cup having a portion that is liquid-abosorbent.
The present invention provides a container device for cleaning up spillage, liquid condensate and the like used in association with both heated and unheated beverages, and which includes a liquid-absorbent portion, or a removable portion of the cup, for cleaning up spillage.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a liquid-absorbent portion for a container used for holding a liquid is provided. Typically, the beverage container includes:
a base;
an upstanding vertical sidewall attached to the base, which container is divided by the base into an inner portion forming a liquid containing vessel and an outer portion;
a recess formed on the outer portion having a recess thickness and recess dimension; and
a liquid-absorbent wafer;
wherein the liquid-absorbent wafer has a prescribed wafer shape and wafer thickness to allow it to fit into the recess such that when the wafer is securely fastened into the recess the wafer is contiguous with the surface that the container sits on.
According to another aspect of the invention, a method is provided for producing a beverage container for holding liquid which is comprised of a liquid-absorbent portion. Typically, the method includes:
providing a wafer having a top portion, a bottom portion, a wafer thickness and a wafer dimension; and
securing the wafer onto the outer portion of the container to form a cupkin.
As used herein, the term xe2x80x9ccupkinxe2x80x9d is used to describe an aspect of the present invention relating to a cup and wafer napkin in combination. The remaining disclosure describes embodiments of the wafer and the cupkin in accordance of the present invention.
Reference to the remaining portions of the specification, including the drawings and claims, will realize other features and advantages of the present invention. Further features and advantages of the present invention, as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments of the present invention, are described in detail below with respect to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers indicate identical or functionally similar elements.